Effects of increasing soybean meal in late nursery, grower, and finishing pig diets

Lay Summary

Soybean meal is one of the main plant-based protein sources used in swine diets. With the recent incentives from the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, there is predicted to be an increase in soybean oil production; therefore, it is speculated that co-products like soybean meal will increase and have a considerable reduction in price. This would allow swine nutritionists to include soybean meal in greater amounts than usual. This study was designed to investigate the effects of increasing levels of soybean meal in different production phases (late nursery, grower, and late finishing) and formulation strategies (with and without inclusion of corn dried distillers grain with solubles). In late nursery pigs, growth performance was reduced in 10 kg pigs as soybean meal increased; however, minimal effect was observed in 13 kg pigs. For the grower and finishing phases, at least 33.4 and 23.2% soybean meal, respectively, can be used without compromising growth performance or carcass characteristics. These results elucidate the opportunity to formulate pig diets with high levels of SBM if economically feasible.